Lee Greenwood Says Maren Morris ‘Doesn’t Understand Country Music At All’

“God Bless the U.S.A.” singer-songwriter Lee Greenwood has chimed in on Maren Morris’ recent revelation to The Los Angeles Times that she is leaving the country music industry behind, and is responding to Morris’ recent comments regarding patriotism in country music.

During a recent New York Times Popcast interview, Morris discussed songs that have recently topped the Billboard Hot 100, including Jason Aldean’s “Try That in a Small Town” and Oliver Anthony’s “Rich Men North of Richmond,” noting that the country music genre is “so steeped in, weirdly, like patriotism or quasi-patriotism, lots of like, overt hypermasculinity, Whiteness — that’s just like how it’s been from the jump.” Morris added, “After the [Donald] Trump years, people’s biases were on full display. It just revealed who people really were and that they were proud to be misogynistic and racist and homophobic and transphobic. All these things were being celebrated, and it was weirdly dovetailing with this hyper-masculine branch of country music.”

She also told the Los Angeles Times that she feels “very, very distanced” from the genre.

In an opinion piece for Fox News, Greenwood took issue with Morris’ comments, writing, “To suggest that country music is ‘too patriotic’ is to not understand country music at all. It’s in our very name: country music. Our music is written for love of our country, our heart for America.”

He continued, “Because country music is so closely tied to the heartbeat of America, it also happens to reflect what’s happening across the country at the very moment. As a result, it’s not that politics has infiltrated country music, it’s quite the opposite — music ends up reflecting the very conversations happening across the country today … Political trends will change with the winds, but the core of country music remains: love of country, love of freedom, love of America. There’s nothing wrong with that, and that’s not going to change any time soon.”

Greenwood stated that he felt it would be “wiser” for Morris to stay in country music, “where she could continue the conversation and present her interpretation of what it means to be American today.” He also wrote that that stating that country music artists — or the country music genre as a whole — should be canceled because of disagreements with a song’s lyrics “is a slippery slope to censorship, free expression, and is out of line with the values of hard work, freedom, and grit that have made country music so great to this day.”

Billboard has reached out to Morris’ rep for comment on Greenwood’s opinion piece.

Morris has been a strong and outspoken supporter of the LGBTQ+ community. Earlier this year, she performed as part of the Love Rising benefit concert in Nashville, which was held to protest Tennessee legislation that would negatively impact trans youths. Morris also appeared on a cover of Billboard‘s 2023 Pride Issue alongside drag luminaries Eureka O’Hara, Landon Cider, Sasha Colby and Symone.